So the last few weeks have been quite eventful (more on that later), but I wanted to post my recap of last weekends half marathon before I forget to do so :)
Last Saturday (February 12th), I ran my first half marathon of the season: the Cedars of Lebanon Frostbite Half Marathon. I lucked out and got beautiful weather, which was in sharp contrast to the snow and ice from the week leading up to the race. At race time, the temperature was in the high 40's and in the 50's by the end of the race.
I decided to challenge myself with this race to see how far I could push my time this early in my marathon training plan. This was a small local race (about 750 people total), so it wasn't super organized yet everything was executed smoothly. I lined up with people anticipating their first mile to be around 10:00. To my great surprise, when my Garmin beeped at the end of mile 1, I had run a 9:20!!! Haven't done that in a long time! Even better, I maintained my 9:20 pace for the first 6.2 miles, setting a new 10k PR for myself :)
I almost wish the race had stopped at 10k, because shortly after the halfway point, the chest discomfort that has plagued my training for the past three weeks struck and forced me to slow to a walk for about a half mile. I continued the race as a walk/run, alternating between a 10:30 pace and a 16:30 pace for the entire second half. In spite of the epic health fail during the second half of the race, I finished in 2:26:04, which is nearly 10 minutes faster than my first half marathon time from last September.
Since this was a low-key local race, they didn't give out medals (so no bling for this one!) but my sister has promised me a kick-ass homemade medal to honor my first race of 2011! :) I'll update with pictures when I get them uploaded but all-in-all, I had a great day and a great run!
